Royalty

Fiona suddenly awoke as something – or most likely someone – jumped into her lap. It was unsurprisingly Felicia bouncing around, "Oh mommy! You're awake!" the little ogress threw her arms around her mother's neck, "It's so exciting, you need to see mommy, you need to!"

Fiona – already thoroughly amused by her daughter's dramatic antics – followed her instructions and peered blearily over the heads of her sons out the window. A grin slowly spread over her face as in the distance she could see their destination; a very welcome sight to wake up to, both for the excitement and relief that their journey was almost over.

"What is that mom?" Fergus pointed his little hand out of the window, "Is that Far Far Away?"

"Yes!" Fiona couldn't help but let the excitement out. She gave a quick glance to her husband, he was still sleeping, Felicia's toy in hand rather than Felicia herself. Puss was also slumbering curled up on his shoulder. She returned her gaze to the boarder walls of her kingdom as they grew closer. They had passed many different kingdoms, but the Far Far Away's coat of arms was mounted above the big gateway, a symbol the children were familiar with.

"We've never seen that wall before," Fergus edged out of his brother and sister's way, "But we've been to Far Far Away before, why didn't we see it then?"

"Look Fergus, we saw the big big words on the mountains!" Felicia chipped in with her response, "It really is Far Far Away!"

"We see that when we fly!" Farkle added.

"I know!" Fergus stomped his foot a little, "I was just wondering."

Carefully defusing the situation, Fiona took her son's hand and gently pulled him over to her. She smiled, placing a hand on his cheek, carefully wiping the traces of sleep from his eye with her thumb, "We usually fly over this wall, but today we're going under it instead."

This caught the attention of all three of her children, they grinned at her, practically bursting with excitement. She sat back and watched as they all tried to stick their heads out of the window as the carriage crossed the border, squealing with elation as they travelled through the gates. The princess vaguely remembered when she was little, being excited about returning home after trips to other kingdoms when she saw the same walls. Though she was never allowed to jump around so enthusiastically, not that she really ever tried. She remembered sitting on her mother's lap, leaning towards the window so she could stare in awe at the kingdom they said would one day be hers. Of course that ended when the curse would take her human form at night, she never left the kingdom after that, not until she left for the tower. The ogress recalled being allowed to wave goodbye out the window of the carriage on that particular journey, though she was sure it was simply to leave the citizens in good spirits. Fiona would never admit to her mother about how happy she was that her own children didn't have to be brought up in the same way. She often wondered how much of their personalities would have been squashed to fit into the shell of a royal. It wouldn't have suited them, she much preferred their wild spirit and carefree laughter.

"Hey," she caught their attention, she knew they couldn't be too wild and carefree in the presence of Far Far Away, they were still the princes and princess after all, "I think it's time to wake up daddy."

The three then turned their excited attention to their father, who somehow was still sleeping through their antics. Though, Fiona knew Shrek had gotten very good at half waking up to them, just about managing to respond and falling quickly back to sleep. That was if they let him. The poor ogre used to be the main target of their morning routine. It would often make her laugh, as they jumped all over their father and left her alone, mainly because Felicia was the instigator back then and everyone knew who her most favourite person in the whole world was. It took a little time before Fergus decided he also wanted to choose someone to wake up, that someone being herself. Though the real trouble was Farkle, who - being the most confident on his feet - would decide he didn't want to wake up anyone. The amount of times Fiona would be awoken to the smiling faces of two of her children, and would have to leap out of bed faster than she had ever recalled doing to grab her third curious baby and bring him squirming and wriggling back to their bed. In fact Fiona was surprised they had thought to wake her up first today. That, of course, was if they hadn't been leaping all over Shrek beforehand and he had done an expert job at ignoring it, and if Felicia had at all intended to wake her up by jumping on her. Children didn't seem to understand the concept of sleep.

Fiona couldn't help but laugh as the triplets all jumped at once onto their father's lap, waking him with a start, also sending Puss sprawling out the back window into the luggage cart. It wasn't long before the blame was pushed to her, with several pointed fingers. She giggled as Shrek's gaze followed their direction, meeting Fiona's eyes with a smile.

"We're here?" he asked, his smile fading a little.

"We're here!" she confirmed, brightening, trying her hardest to counter his negativity. Though the children seemed to do a good enough job as they tugged his attention back to themselves and practically fought amongst each other to tell him the most. Fiona had tried to pry into his fears the previous night when the kids were finally asleep, Puss respected their privacy and stayed outside, thank goodness he wasn't Donkey. But Shrek continued to feign nonchalance and wave off the subject. It wasn't like she didn't really know, she could read her husband like a book. He was terrified something terrible was going to happen, more so now because of the children. She couldn't deny that it was a worry for her too, they were such easy targets and yet had the power to bring both her and Shrek down. But – nothing bad had happened since they defeated Charming, no one had stepped out of line, or crept out of the shadows at all. Well, except the one incident she didn't like to think about. Still, she brushed the subject aside, Artie's reign had been uncontested, what would happen now to change that?

"Hey, hey," Shrek caught the three children as they began to scramble for the window again, "Not now ye don't." Fiona too caught on to the people beginning to spot their carriage and try to run along and steal a glimpse of them through the windows. "Remember what yer mom said about being good here. Ye can't just run around like wild things."

Puss leapt back into the carriage, "Everyone will be watching niños," he turned his attention to Shrek and Fiona, "Lots of people are following."

The triplets each took their seats, their enthusiasm dampened. Fiona knew it was time for the pep talk. "It's not like back home here." Every time there was a sudden noise, or a particularly interesting building each of their heads would turn to see what it was; they were itching to be back at the window, but the seriousness in her tone kept them seated. "Do you remember what you are here?"

"We're royalty," Felicia answered for the three of them, "I'm a princess and Fergus is a prince and Farkle is a prince too," she pointed to herself and her brothers in turn.

"Yes, exactly." Fiona wasn't sure if they entirely knew what that meant. Where she was brought up as a royal and was exposed every day to that responsibility and position, they were not. In their minds every child probably had kingdoms in their name. "People in the kingdom expect you to act like that too," Fiona paused to elbow her husband to shush his quiet laughter. "Do you remember what that means?" They had been through it all before, before they started the trip and especially for their fourth birthday months earlier. But that was different, that was a party, this was them finally being announced into their positions as royalty. Each child named a few examples; no running, no shouting, no crying, no screaming, no fighting, the list went on... They remembered, it was something, though whether they would remember those rules when the opportunities presented themselves was an entirely different matter. Fiona would have to hold her relief. "Okay, good!" Fiona tried to brighten herself, she didn't want to make the trip a hassle for them, they were already catching on to Shrek's dislike of the fame they held and the place in general. Though she knew it was probably a losing battle, what with the never ending rules. She would try her hardest to make them enjoy Far Far Away.

However, Fiona's cheerful façade melted away as they entered the castle grounds. Shrek placed his hand on hers and squeezed it a little, both watching the crowds of cheering people with grim expressions.

"That's a lot of people," Fergus quietly observed, biting his fingers.

"Are they all here to see us?" Felicia's face dropped a little.

"Yes, they are," Fiona lowered her voice.

"Look! There's grandma and Artie!" Farkle jumped up but was quickly shushed by both parents.

They followed his gaze and yes, they were at castle entrance, patiently waiting for the chaos to arrive, as Shrek had so eloquently put it earlier.

"Do you remember what we said?" Fiona whispered urgently, quickly pulling Felicia to her lap and retying the ribbon that kept the hair from her face.

"Yes," Fergus nodded, "We have to walk down there," he pointed hesitantly.

"Can I run?" Farkle chimed in, sitting back in his seat, laughing.

"No Farkle," Shrek silenced the child.

"I have a question," Felicia looked to her father, despite her mother's best efforts to keep her head still, "Can daddy carry me?"

"Also, no."

Fiona struggled not to throw her head into her hands and give up. "We all walk," she spoke clearly, silencing her daughter's protests. She gave the boys what she hoped was a stern look. "And we all walk nicely."

"Ye don't wanna know what'll happen t' ye if you don't," Shrek chuckled lightly.

"Sí," Puss stood, catching the attention of the children, "There are plenty of dungeons below the castle," he paused as they all gasped a little, "Artie could put you in any one of them."

"Artie wouldn't do that," Fergus ventured.

"I wouldn't bet on it," Shrek smirked at the cat.

It almost seemed to make the family jump when the door to their carriage was opened. The ogre couple shared a glance between themselves before Shrek climbed out. He barely surveyed the people around him before turning and grabbing the nearest child he could. The unfortunate victim being Fergus, "It's okay," he whispered reassuringly at his son, who looked nothing less than terrified. It didn't seem to help. He placed the child down on the red carpet, Fergus immediately grabbing onto the frayed fringe of his shirt. Shrek turned back for the next child, vaguely acknowledging the applause, rather that than the silence they experienced the last time they walked the same carpet. Felicia and Farkle seemed to be in a silent battle to get onto Fiona's lap to escape him. Shrek didn't have time to see it out, and placed his hands around his daughter's waist, deeming Farkle the winner, and lifted her out of the carriage.

"Daddy no, dad..." she whispered frantically.

"Hold yer brother's hand," he practically hissed at her.

She fell silent and did as she was told. He then turned back to claim his last victim, who was currently being held still by his mother, eyes squeezed shut. "It's your turn Farkle," he chuckled lightly, despite himself. Fiona quickly kissed the child's cheek before passing him down. Farkle latched onto Felicia's other hand. All three then turned as Shrek helped his wife descend out of the carriage, Puss following closely.

"Smile Fergus, they like us! It's what princes and princesses have to do!" Felicia's voice was barely audible above the applause the family gained.

Shrek firmly took hold of his daughter's shoulder, keeping the three of them in place as he could tell Artie was waiting for the applause to die down. He felt Fiona lightly squeeze the hand she held on to, catching his attention. She gave him a smile, he returned the gesture, surprisingly finding himself more cheerful than he expected. The last time he had really seen Artie was easily over a year ago. The poor kid was definitely kept on his toes. It appeared he was currently on his toes too much, as the ogre could see Lillian place a hand on his shoulder. He was still technically in training, despite having sat on the throne for nearly five years already. In fact, Shrek acknowledged that he should stop calling the young king 'kid', his twenty-first birthday was fast approaching.

The cheering died down, there was a pause, people began turning to Lillian and Artie, expectantly awaiting their greeting.

"Shrek, Fiona, children, and Puss, welcome back to Far Far Away!"

Shrek had to admit it, the kid sounded like a king.

AN: Creating believable personalities for the kids based on what stubs of characterisation we got from the films was a pretty high priority for me in this. But who even knows if the next film will come along and change everything. Sigh. We shall see. They might not even be in it. Anyway, I need to stop talking to myself.

Actually, no, while I am talking to myself, I might as well ask if anyone else is confused about the birth order of the triplets? (excuse me while I go off on a tangent). Because I want to be stubborn and say it's Fergus, Farkle, Felicia, as that's always how I've pictured it, plus that's how they present their names. But then in Forever After the order the kids are sat in is Farkle, Fergus, Felicia. That's just weird to me because Farkle seems like such a middle child. It's like they've got their mini Shrek and mini Fiona, but leaving it like that was far too cliché, so they had to throw in another kid who was a mix of the two. He's the one who's least interacted with and least referred to (poor Farkle). He's the stereotypical middle child. But... Idk... We need some confirmation.